Like Snow - Minerva McGonagall
by Lizor
Summary: Minerva McGonagall was a brave, young witch, who was known for her wit and outstanding transfiguration skills. Her love for books was as big as her love for Quidditch and her loyalty to her house and school. On a cold day, this young, bookish girl roamed the hallways of Hogwarts and found herself to be lost in one of the many school's secrets.
1. Red flowers and golden crests

**001 • Red flowers and golden crests**

Winter was upon us. A cold and dark winter as it hadn't been in many years. Hogwarts had been snowed in and for the first few weeks of the new year, the students ought to remain inside. The fun of having snowball fights had long ago sailed and most just wished for better weather soon. At night you carefully had to tuck yourself in bed — deep underneath the woolen blankets — as to protect yourself from the bitter cold. During the day, extra candles would be lit and even then, most students walked around with their shawls wrapped around their necks and their hands deep into their pockets. The Common Rooms were warmest, so that's where most held themselves up. Even now, the Gryffindor Common Room was very crowded for such a late eve. The students postponed going to bed as much as possible so they were able to sit by the fire a little longer. The fire and many torches lit up the faces of the students who were huddled up in small groups around the cozy room and preferably close to the fire. Whoever had the privilege of sitting on the big sofa by the hearth, would be most comfortable. Overall, these were the older students who wouldn't budge to sent a few second- and first-years away so they could seat themselves at the fire most pleasantly.  
This evening, a particularly tall seventh grader had settled himself in the large sofa and looked over the room as if this fact made him prince of Gryffindor tower. A few girls fawned over him and his friends tried to talk him into getting up so they could get his perfect seat. From the corner, a girl was watching the scene from over her large, round-shaped glasses. She wore her thick Gryffindor jumper and almost disappeared behind the stack of books, lying on the table. Her long, black hair was braided neatly and a few loose strands were tucked behind her ear. On the table stood a damp glass of black tea with a small amount of thick milk poured into it. Every now and then, the girl sipped from her tea before scribbling a few more lines on the piece of parchment before her and stealing a glance at the boys up front. On the girl's chest gleamed a golden badge, saying "Headgirl". It seemed to be taken proper care of, since it glimmered proudly in the orange light of the flickering fire.  
'Mini!' She looked up as she heard someone call her by her idiotic nickname. She pushed the glasses that had slit off her nose back and smiled. A short, curvy girl sat down on the table next to the large stack of books.  
'You know Mini, that next week we are allowed to go to the Hogsmeade village, right?' The girl with the glasses nodded. 'And you will never guess who asked me to escort him!' She paused and looked at the friend who carefully rolled up her parchment and emptied the table into her leather schoolbag. A silence fell and the girl with the glasses realized her friend was desperately waiting for an answer.  
'Uhm... B-.' 'YES BRISTON!' the other girl almost screamed. As she half jumped up from excitement her brown, thick curls sprang up and danced happily around her head, her blue eyes shone bright and her mouth shaped into an unmistakable smile. The scream had made the girl with the glasses jump and they popped off her nose. She sniggered and put the glasses straight again, after having them cleaned carefully with a tissue she got from her bag.  
'That is wonderful, Emily,' she said with a pleasant smile.  
'Oh, Minerva, you have no idea, he is so lovely,' she squeaked. Emily blushed heavily as she talked. Over the next few minutes, Minerva remained quite silent as her friend bragged on about how _lovely_ the boy was, exactly. Eventually she excused herself and told Emily she was tired and should go to bed. Emily kissed her on both her cheeks and wished her goodnight, still looking as flushed as before. Minerva accepted one last hug from her friend and went upstairs to the girls' dormitories. She closed the door and stood against it, enjoying the peaceful silent and the absence of the exposing light. She dropped her bag onto her bed and kneeled down to stock al the books in to her improvised shelves. After having done that, she undressed herself and put on her silk nightgown she had gotten for her last birthday. It was a very chique one and she loved wearing because it was very soft and comfortable. Also, it did help her sometimes if she missed home. Which wasn't very often because she was quite at ease at this place, but sometimes on a dark night, she would.  
Her furry, tabby cat must have woken up by the minimal amount of sound Minerva made as a pair of yellow eyes stared at her from out of the dark. She clambered into the bed and under the woolen sheets. Her cat settled herself against her as she lay down and with the warmt of the purring cat, she soon fell into a deep sleep.  
the girl who just feel asleep was Minerva McGonagall. A very bright witch, with extreme good Transfiguration qualities. She became Headgirl after having been prefect since her fifth year and she was a well practiced Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. She comes from a family with a Muggle as a father and a witch as a mother. Her two brothers are named Robert Jr. and Malcolm. She was born and raised in Caithness, Scotland. Minerva got sorted into Gryffindor after nearly five and a half minute of which the Sorting Hat tried to decide if it should be that or Ravenclaw. She would have well fitted into Ravenclaw, as Minerva was a very smart girl and gave a lot of time to keeping up her grades and studying. She was best of her class and had already gotten "Outstanding" in all her O.W.L. exams. Sometimes there was doubt if she shouldn't be in Ravenclaw, but Minerva was a very brave girl as well. She wouldn't easily stand back for something, even if it scared her and in her roared the lion that roared in every Gryffindor. She was very loyal to her house and since she had gotten very badly injured in the last Quidditch game against Slytherin, that desire to fight for her house — and crush Slytherin in Quidditch — had grown even bigger. This was Minerva McGonagall and she was about to get herself into some big trouble after she had woken the next day by the weight of her tabby cat on her chest.


	2. Bittercold secrets

**002 • Bittercold secrets**

The sun rose late the next day and again the daylight brought along more snow. The grounds of Hogwarts were still covered in a thick layer of what seemed to be icing sugar put on much to thick so you couldn't see what was under it anymore. Even though the sky was grey, every now and then sun would come through the curtain of clouds. It was something the inhabitants of Hogwarts hadn't seen in a long time, so it did make everyone more cheerful. It was Monday now and the hallways of the castle roamed with the sounds of students that were heading to their classes. Somewhere between them walked the black haired girl with her glasses tipped on her nose and her hands wrapped around her books. Minerva McGonagall — who had just experienced a splendid breakfast — yawned as she turned around another corner. In a few minutes her first class of the day — Defense Against the Dark Arts — would start and she was running rather late. Minerva accelerated her pace slightly when she noticed the time by looking on her watch and was glad to be right on time. She sat herself down behind one of the desks next to her good friend Emily Jones and greeted her shortly. She wasn't sure if Emily had heard her because right at that moment her crush, Briston walked passed and all her attention got sucked up by that. Minerva smiled and opened her books slowly. She took out her carefully made homework and waited for the class to start with her fountain pen in her hand, ready to make notes.  
'Remember, I want to see your homework on my desk tomorrow. Twenty-five inches on how to know the difference between the bite of a vampire and the bite any other animal and how to treat the wound when you have been bitten.' Some loud sighs erupted from the students as they heard the teacher call after them. Minerva had already scribbled it down in her planner and made her way out of the classroom. Emily joined her and laced their arms together, like she often did when she wanted to drag Minerva away and fire her with questions. As she had expected, Minerva got dragged away by her best friend. She quickly checked her watch. They would only have about five minutes, because the next lesson would start should and Minerva didn't want to be late. Emily hadn't said a word yet, but had pushed Minerva against the wall. She looked quite distressed and as Minerva tried to stand a bit more comfortable and rubbed her sore back, Emily bursted into her story.  
'I need your help Mini, because well… Briston asked me today and well he wants to go tonight but I don't know. How can I go tonight? There is a curfew. He said it didn't matter — well not exactly like that, he said something like — oh well I don't remember. Anyways, help me because I do not know what to do!' she exclaimed. Minerva blinked and looked at her friend. Not a single word had come through, because Emily had been talking extremely fast. She placed her hand on Emily's shoulder and looked at her.  
'Deep breath.' Emily nodded and did as told. 'Alright. Now tell me again, what do you need my help with?'  
'Briston wants to meet up tonight, after curfew,' she said, this time more clearly and less quick. Minerva looked at her and frowned. She seemed to process the words her friend had just spoken. Meanwhile the small clockwork on her wrist ticked the time away. It was only after a minute Minerva realized she hadn't answered yet and that she was going to be late for class.  
'How is this even something you need to think about? You're going to get caught and get house points taken from you. Don't do it, you can meet him in Hogsmeade. I have to go to class,' she said hastily. She hugged Emily quickly and then ran away, her books clammed to her chest. She shook her head as she entered the class breathlessly and couldn't understand how Emily could even think it was a possibility to meet the _"love of her life"_ past curfew in secret. How daft.

An extra heavy storm was brought by the skies to Hogwarts this evening. The bright sun that had given everyone some positive spirit over the being of the weather from now on, had completely sailed. Outside, the weather was disastrous and inside, that reflected on most students. Everyone went to bed early, sad and grumpy due to the storm. The clock had barely struck eleven and Minerva was already sitting in the Common Room on her own. She had just finished her homework and was packing up her stuff as something occurred to her. She had not seen Emily all night, which wasn't very usual, because Emily would always come to her to at least tell her goodnight. Something weary grew in Minerva guts as she climbed up the stairs to check on Emily's bed. It was no surprise to her — but a very big disappointment — when she found Emily's bed very much empty. She wanted to curse and it took all her self-control not to do so, however, Minerva McGonagall did not curse. Instead, Minerva put her books away, took her wand in her hand and jogged downstairs. She was going to get Emily back, before someone else caught her. She might be a Headgirl, but Emily was still her best friend.  
'I don't know why I'm doing this,' Minerva murmured to herself as she stepped out the portrait passage. She tried promising herself she would not help Emily with her homework for at least the next week, but realized Emily was just in love and knew she couldn't really hold her responsible. She would, however, most definitely lecture Emily about her behavior. Normally, Minerva would never do something as impulsive as this and this was the moment when she realized she had no idea where on earth Emily could be. She knew the castle well, but Minerva did not have time to search every inch of the castle for her best friend. She decided that she would just check a few spots and then go back to bed. She would do what she could for Emily, but she had gotten herself in this trouble. Minerva had warned her.  
Minerva had only walked around the castle — her wand in front her, serving as a guiding light — when she heard footsteps. Immediately she put her wand away and looked around. What did she have to do now? Panic crept over her as Minerva had never done sneaking around the castle — except for one time she had forgotten to look up something in a book for homework that had to finished the next morning and she had sneaked into the library, but that was solely for her schoolwork! The footsteps grew closer and closer. Minerva paced up and down, she prayed for an idea to shoot her and like that, a door — she had not seen before — was there. She didn't overthink for a minute and opened it — yes it was open, to her great surprise. Exactly at the moment she shut the door, she heard the footsteps come around the corner right to the point she had stood only a few seconds ago.


	3. Dark forebodings

**003 • Dark forebodings**

Minerva found herself in a dark room. Panic rose in her as the door in front of her shrank until it had completely disappeared. She knew she wouldn't be able to walk into the hallway right now, but the fact that she was in an unknown room and the door had just vanished wasn't very reassuring. Slowly, Minerva turned around. The first step she took had the effect of lightning two torches on both sides. Her heart lifted a little — at least now she could see something. She felt like cursing her best friend for getting both of them in this mess, but realized that would not make any difference right now and decided to focus on getting herself back into bed first. She'd tried to save Emily and put her own reputation in danger, there was a limit. This had been Emily's own choice and it wasn't the case that Emily hadn't known the consequences of her actions — neither was she in a life threatening situation. Therefore, Minerva found she had no obligation to safe her best friend out of this situation now. Though, before she could even think about getting Emily back to bed she first had to get herself out of this nasty position.  
Minerva took a deep breath and looked around. The room was only partly lighted by the torches and from what she could see now, it existed mostly out of big piles of lots and lots of things she could not place. It seemed like a giant dump of old magical items. Minerva found the biggest stash of books on her left that had torn off covers and missed many pages that had gotten wet, been burned or dispatched in any other way. A soft squeak left her mouth as she almost fell over some books while moving towards the larger stack. She picked up some of the dusty covered books and frowned slightly as she flipped through a barely readable, yellowish book. The blue cover had the letters "deat-" written in silver on it — the larger part was covered in black ink — Minerva quickly put it away because she could fill in the book wasn't one that you would find in a proper library. She soon discovered that most of the books that lay all over the place weren't the nicest books. They were dark and absolutely not the ones she would have had at home, stocked in her bookcase. A shiver ran down her spine and she quickly put a book that was called "potions to kill" back on the pile. The nasty and cruel images in the book had made her stomach do some backflips.  
While Minerva roamed through the large chamber — and more torches lit up around her as she passed them — she forgot her plan to get out of here. The content of the room intrigued her — maybe not in a good way because it made her shiver and shake, but she somehow got caught up in the books and magical objects all around her. She knelt down and brushed some dust off a large, copper kettle, she picked up an empty cage and studied it and she almost fell over when one of the books fell open and started to scream. Her fall made some objects topple and that caused the large pile on her side to start and slide. A scream left her mouth and she desperately tried to keep the objects from falling. This didn't really work out well as she tumbled over herself and got covered herself by books, cages, kettles and more. When she had gotten herself out, the torches had gone out and Minerva was caught in full darkness.  
At this point, she realized once again what she'd been trying to do before she got lost in studying the old books and objects. Panic caught her again as she got to her feet and looked around, but there was no point. She couldn't see a thing through the pitch black dark. She did know however, that the door had been on her left from where she stood now, since that was the only sensible option was she had, she started to walk that way, supporting herself with her hands as not to fall. However, when she heard a low voice whispering softly, she completely froze.  
In the corner of her eye she'd seen a glimmer of something, but obviously — since it was pitch black — she could not see what it was. A very nasty feeling crawled over her. The whispering she had heard, brought a feeling with it. The dark books had been nothing compared to the chilling she had felt when hearing the voice. She wanted to run, but couldn't move her legs and if she could have, she wouldn't have know where to go. She was stuck in the dark. She slowly curled her fingers around her wand — which she'd completely forgotten about due to the panic.  
' _Lumos_.' Her voice was only a whispering but it lit the room, though only for a moment. Suddenly, the light on the end of her wand got dimmed — without Minerva's doing. She wasn't sorted in Gryffindor for no reason and therefore she was brave, but even the bravest were scared at some points in their lives and at this point she was. She had a feeling she wasn't alone in the room but she had not seen anyone when the light had lit up the room, neither had she heard anyone walk around. If they were whispering into her ear, they should have been close to her. She concluded it must have been one of the objects in this room and seeing the pile of nasty books, it could easily be some very dark magic.  
Slowly, she began to walk back, her wand pointed in front of her. She didn't dare to try the _lumos_ spell again, due to the fact that she did not want to attract more attention to herself. Though, she was pretty sure she had made it pretty clear she was heard. Again, she heard the whispering and a cold chill ran down her spine. It made goosebumps appear on her arm and it made her feel very much unprotected. She didn't know what lured in the shadows, but it scared her out of her wits and as her back touched the cold, stone wall, she wished with whole her heart a door would appear for her.


	4. Gloomy and gleaming thoughts

**004 • Gloomy and gleaming thoughts**

Minerva found herself to be facing the edges of a door which she could see by the small stroke of light that came from under it. In the first seconds she was sure this was a dream but when she realized it wasn't, she rushed forward, pulled open the door and sprinted out of the room. She only stopped running when she was no more than five turns and three stairs away from the room she had just gotten herself out. She only now noticed that her cheeks were wet. The panic had made tears come out of her eyes and her body was shaking all over. When she let the silence fall, she could still hear the voice in her head. The nasty hissing of which she had no idea what it was. She felt cold and sweaty and decided to quickly get back to bed. She wiped the tears from her cheek, put on a straight face and quietly made her way back to Gryffindor tower. She walked the way to her bed without really noticing where she was. Her mind was still locked up in the room.  
Minerva felt a rush over anger come over her as she saw her best friend Emily laying in her own bed. She was in a deep sleep and for a moment Minerva doubted if she should wake her up as to give her the lecture right now, but she decided against it. Very carefully, Minerva sat down on her bed and took up her watch. Her heart leaped as she saw what the time was. She quickly looked outside and realized the night had become lighter. It was already far in the morning. Minerva had been in the room for ages.  
With a lump in her throat, Minerva got into her back. She crawled deep under the blanked. Not until now she realized how cold she had gotten. She curled up and closed her eyes, but as soon as she did, she was back in the dark room. Her mind seemed to have been stuck in there, while her body escaped. Minerva widened her eyes and lay on her side, staring past a small gap between the curtain and the wall where she could watch the sky. Her heart thumped and while she slowly warmed up, her mind spun. Many questions came to her, she wished she knew what was in the room and deep inside her curiously started to fester. She tried to push the thoughts away, but even though she was afraid, she wanted to go back there. She wanted to find out what it was that had stopped her magic. What had gotten her so afraid? She didn't want to be afraid of anything, she wanted to face her fears and deal with them. At least, that was what she told herself to make up for the thoughts she was having. Deep down, however, she knew it was more than that.

Barely two hours later, Minerva was woken up by Emily. She felt her head thump as she pushed herself up, not saying a word to Emily who kept chattering and chattering on. She didn't notice Minerva's silence. It was very normal for Minerva to be the listener while Emily held a monologue. The only difference now was that Minerva really wasn't listening. She was too tired to pay attention and still mad at Emily, so she didn't feel the urge to try very much, but mostly, her mind was still with the dark room and the enforcement she had felt. While Minerva was tying her shoes, she stared at the wall. She didn't even realize she laced her shoes twice and she especially didn't notice Emily shouting her name and trying to get her attention until Emily practically jumped in front of her.  
'Mini!' Minerva looked up in surprise and got up quickly when Emily told her they were getting late if they still wanted to eat before going to class. Minerva nodded absentmindedly and walked to the door, without waiting for her friend. Emily grabbed her arm.  
'What's wrong?' she asked, her voice suddenly full with concern. 'You look exhausted and… off.'  
'I spent all night searching for you as to make sure you wouldn't get your dumb, shallow butt into trouble,' Minerva snapped. She pulled her arm back and stared Emily in her eyes. Emily looked slightly taken aback. She opened her eyes and seemed to want to be saying something, but Minerva had already gotten herself loose and sped downstairs. She didn't answer as Emily called after her. She jumped out of the portrait and took a turn left. She kept walking and walking. Her head still pounding. She wasn't thinking where her feet were leading her, but suddenly she was there again. In front of the wall where she had gone through yesterday. The only difference was, that there was no door. The wall was there, very solid and with not a hint to a door that could have been there. Minerva let her hand slide over the bricks and stared at it. A sob left her mouth and she leaned against the wall. She slid down and pulled up her knees. She wasn't sure what had made her lost it, normally she was very good at keeping herself together. It was probably the lack of sleep, the shock of yesterday and many more small things. Minerva realized she shouldn't have come back to this place. Eventually, she forced herself to go back to the common room and crawl back into her bed. Emily was sent to look on her later that day. They were okay when Emily made sure Minerva was called in sick. They weren't friends for no reason. Minerva had forgiven her already, it had just been the shock of discovering what she did. She hated the darkness playing with her mind. She knew what she had experienced was the temptingness of dark magic. What she had discovered that night had been a a piece of her worst nightmare and her greatest desire. Every wizard would be — at some point in their live — confronted with dark magic and this was Minerva's bit. Minerva did think about it lots of times after this night. She even went back sometimes. Sometimes when she lost that bit of control she did, but she never came back in. Minerva was glad about that, because it made the temptation stand well outside her reach. She dove even further into studying the good parts of magic. Eventually the cold and snowy days past and spring set in. After a few months, Minerva only thought about that night on very rare occasions. She only discovered, however, what the dark magic had been after a certain dark wizard returned to power and boy — marked by a lightning bolt — opened the room to retreat and destroy a silver, gleaming diadem.

 _The end._


End file.
